The ultimate aim of all visual arts is the complete building! To embellish buildings was once the
noblest function of the fine arts; they were the indispensable components of great architecture.
Today the arts exist in isolation, from which they can be rescued only through the conscious,
cooperative effort of all craftsmen. Architects, painters, and sculptors must recognize anew and
learn to grasp the composite character of a building both as an entity and in its separate parts.
Only then will their work be imbued with the architectonic spirit which it has lost as “salon art.”
The old schools of art were unable to produce this unity; how could they, since art cannot
be taught. They must be merged once more with the workshop. The mere drawing and painting
world of the pattern designer and the applied artist must become a world that builds again. When
young people who take a joy in artistic creation once more begin their life's work by learning a
trade, then the unproductive “artist” will no longer be condemned to deficient artistry, for their
skill will now be preserved for the crafts, in which they will be able to achieve excellence.
Architects, sculptors, painters, we all must return to the crafts! For art is not a
“profession.” There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is
an exalted craftsman. In rare moments of inspiration, transcending the consciousness of his will,
the grace of heaven may cause his work to blossom into art. But proficiency
in a craft is essential to every artist. Therein lies the prime source of creative imagination.
Let us then create a new guild of craftsmen without the class distinctions that raise an
arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist! Together let us desire, conceive, and create the
new structure of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one
unity and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the
crystal symbol of a new faith.
Walter Gropius
training in the crafts, acquired in workshops and in experimental and practical sites, is required
of all students as the indispensable basis for all artistic production. Our own workshops are to be
gradually built up, and apprenticeship agreements with outside workshops will be concluded.
The school is the servant of the workshop, and will one day be absorbed in it. Therefore
there will be no teachers or pupils in the Bauhaus but masters, journeymen, and apprentices.
The manner of teaching arises from the character of the workshop: Organic forms
developed from manual skills.
Avoidance of all rigidity; priority of creativity; freedom of individuality, but strict study
discipline.
Master and journeyman examinations, according to the Guild Statutes, held before the
Council of Masters of the Bauhaus or before outside masters.
Collaboration by the students in the work of the masters. Securing of commissions, also
for students.
Mutual planning of extensive, Utopian structural designs-public buildings and buildings
for worship-aimed at the future. Collaboration of all masters and students-architects, painters,
sculptors-on these designs with the object of gradually achieving a harmony of all the component
elements and parts that make up architecture.
Constant contact with the leaders of the crafts and industries of the country. Contact with
public life, with the people, through exhibitions and other activities.
New research into the nature of the exhibitions, to solve the problem of displaying visual
work and sculpture within the framework of architecture.
Encouragement of friendly relations between masters and students outside of work;
therefore plays. lectures, poetry, music, costume parties. Establishment of a cheerful ceremonial
at these gatherings.
Range of Instruction
Instruction at the Bauhaus includes all practical and scientific areas of creative work.
A. Architecture,
B. Painting,
C. Sculpture
including all branches of the crafts.
Students are trained in a craft (1) as well as in drawing and painting (2) and science and theory
(3).
2
Gropius, 1919 Bauhaus Manifesto
Divisions of Instruction
The training is divided into three courses of instruction:
I. course for apprentices,
II. course for journeymen,
III. course for junior masters.
The instruction of the individual is left to the discretion of each master within the
framework of the general program and the work schedule, which is revised every semester. In
order to give the students as versatile and comprehensive a technical and artistic training as
possible, the work schedule will be so arranged that every architect, painter, and sculptor-to-be is
able to participate in part of the other courses.
Admission
Any person of good repute, without regard to age or sex, whose previous education is deemed
adequate by the Council of Masters, will be admitted, as far as space permits. The tuition fee is
180 marks per year (It will gradually disappear entirely with increasing earnings of the Bauhaus).
A nonrecurring admission fee of 20 marks is also to be paid. Foreign students pay double fees.
Address inquiries to the Secretariat of the Staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar.
April 1919.
The administration of the
Staatliche Bauhaus in Weimar:
Walter Gropius.